11 Tuesday Mar 2025
Posted in insects
After a long meander around Cosmeston Lakes Country Park earlier today, I was just leaving the last paddock to head home and, I admit, I was feeling a little disappointed not to have seen my first Sand martin and/or Wheatear of the year, when I spotted this ragged beauty perched on the hedge, my first Comma of the year. That certainly put a smile on my face!
30 Thursday Jun 2022
Posted in insects
I saw my first Comma butterfly on 18 March and continued to spot them quite regularly until the end of April, by which time they were looking increasingly tatty. Although the adults then died off, the next generation was underway, and I saw my first ever Comma caterpillars on two consecutive days in mid May. Now, the pristine adults have begun to appear, floating along the hedgerows and woodland rides, trying very hard to convince me they’re really Silver-washed fritillaries. Their vibrant orange-and-black patterning is a joy to behold.
12 Thursday Aug 2021
Posted in insects
Tags
Adain garpiog, British butterflies, butterfly, C-falter, Comma, Comma butterfly, Robert-le-Diable
With the precision we can rely on from the Germans, the Comma is called the C-falter, the C butterfly. In France it is known as Robert-le-Diable, Robert the devil, which, according to a 2017 article in the Guardian newspaper, ‘is also the name of a favourite 19th-century Centifolia rose with a unique purple-cerise-scarlet-grey flower and a wonderful old rose fragrance; an 1831 opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer about the moral redemption of the son of a mortal and a demon; and the father of William the Conqueror, who was said to be the son of the Devil.’ Why the Comma also bears this name the Guardian writer does not specify. Here in Wales the Comma is appropriately named Adain garpiog, which translates as raggedy wing.
02 Thursday Jul 2020
Tags
British butterflies, butterflies, butterfly egg, Comma, Comma butterfly, Comma egg, Polygonia c-album
Though I set off on yesterday’s walk clad in a rain jacket, the first day of July brightened up and turned into a day full of butterflies, with sightings of my first Gatekeepers of the year, a couple of second-brood Holly blues and more than 20 second-brood Small whites, as well as seven other species. But the highlight for me was watching two Commas egg-laying on nettles, and then taking a look at their tiny eggs, which I’d not seen previously.
The butterflies were fluttering around, checking out nettle plants growing alongside the footpath I was walking and, when they found a plant to their liking, they would alight briefly on a leaf, lay a single egg, then flutter off again.
At less than 1mm tall, these eggs are tiny, and I would never have spotted them unless I’d seen them being laid. They’re pale green in colour, with 10 or 11 white ribs running vertically up the sides.
According to Peter Eeles’s Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, each female Comma will lay about 250 eggs, usually on the upper side of a leaf, in a sheltered, sunny position. The eggs will gradually change colour to yellow and, in two or three weeks, to grey, before the little caterpillars hatch. Eggs-citing!
Comma showing the distinctive marking that gave it its name
20 Friday Sep 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature
It seems Commas don’t know their road code: no stopping on double yellow lines 24/7 if no signage. Or maybe this Comma thought the sparkling yellow paint was a flower. Luckily, this was on a quiet country lane with little traffic so the butterfly was in no danger. And it did look rather pretty, highlighted by the bright sunshine.
26 Tuesday Mar 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, ladybird, nature, spring
Tags
#365DaysWild, 7-spot ladybirds, bee-flies, Comma butterfly, Common Green Shieldbug, Dark-edged bee-fly, Peacock butterfly, Penarth Rail Trail, Sawfly, south Wales coastal path, Speckled wood
I walked further than I intended today but I just couldn’t resist the sunshine, the calls of the birds, the bees and hoverflies buzzing all around, the white blossom and the vibrant green leaf growth … it was magical! Yesterday, I saw my first Peacock butterflies of the year and today I saw four more, plus my first two Speckled woods and my first Comma, my first Common green shieldbug and my first Dark-edged bee-flies, lots of them, and my first 7-spot ladybirds. It gladdens my heart to see so much new life emerging.
16 Monday Apr 2018
Tags
Bee-fly, British butterflies, butterflies, Comma, Comma butterfly, Peacock, Peacock butterfly, Speckled wood, Spring has sprung, springtime
Spring came to south Wales on Saturday at approximately 3.30pm and lasted about 4 hours. (It’s supposed to return again next week and stay a few days but, in the constantly changing contemporary climate, it pays not to count your chickens – or, maybe that should be, your rays of sunshine!) Amazingly, as soon as the sun appeared, so too did the butterflies. It was like a door had been opened – where had they been hiding, I wonder? In the space of about 30 minutes, I saw Peacocks and Commas, several never-settling Brimstones, a distant large-or-small White, and my first Speckled wood of the year. Oh, and a couple of Bee-flies – not butterflies, obviously, but the cutest wee flying things you ever did see so I’ve included one here. It was delightful!
19 Tuesday Sep 2017
Tags
British butterflies, butterflies, butterflies that hibernate, butterfly, Comma, Comma butterfly, Polygonia c-album
In Fauna Britannica, Stefan Buczacki describes this butterfly’s ragged outline as being the ‘shape of a fallen leaf’ and its colours, too, are quite autumnal. This is the most grammatically correct of Britain’s butterflies, the Comma, Polygonia c-album.
Though I have no personal experience of this, the Comma is, apparently, one of the three butterflies most likely to be found hibernating in sheds and outhouses – the other two are the Small tortoiseshell and the Peacock. Adult Commas can usually be seen flying between March and September so maybe these ones I’ve seen recently were having their last feeds before looking for a cosy spot to snooze away the cold months of winter. If I had a shed, they’d be most welcome.
11 Monday Jul 2016
I’d seen the stunning Comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album) before, when I lived in Cheshire for 6 months, but this was my first in Wales and the first for 2016. And, surprisingly for a butterfly that can be quite skittish, it was very amenable to photography, fluttering off and coming back to a nearby leaf and changing its pose so I could get a variety of shots – a born model!
Named for the small white comma-shaped mark on the underside of its wings, the Comma is a resilient species. The main food plant for its caterpillars used to be the hops used in brewing beer so the butterfly’s numbers dwindled perilously when hop farming declined in the 1800s. For some reason, the Comma has changed its larval food plant to the Common nettle so, since the 1960s, both its numbers and the extent of its range have increased dramatically. It’s a born survivor!
You can just see the little white comma on the underwide of the wing in the photo above left. On the right is the pupa – a beautifully textured structure, with small silver highlights. And below is a rather battered-looking older specimen, seen when I lived in Cheshire.
earthstar 
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